1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to wireless communication systems and in particular to multi-carrier frequency selection in wireless communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As wireless networks evolve, there is a constant need to provide continuous and faster access to data networks. Therefore, in order to meet the need for continuous and faster access to data networks, wireless communication systems may use multiple carriers for the transmission and/or reception of data. A wireless communication system that uses multiple carriers for the transmission and/or reception of data may be referred to as a multi-carrier system.
A multi-carrier system may increase the bandwidth available in a wireless communication system according to how many carriers are made available. For example, a dual carrier system may double the bandwidth when compared to a single carrier system and a tri-carrier system may triple the bandwidth when compared to a single carrier system, etc. This may improve the quality of service (QoS) for end users.
In 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Long term evolution (LTE) Advanced, utilized for cellular 3G services, communications occur over multiple carriers. LTE technology is based on a 3GPP standard that provides for a downlink speed of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and an uplink speed of up to 50 Mbps. With multiple antennas, speeds can reach more than 320 Mbps on the downlink. However, current LTE standards utilize a handover procedure to switch between carriers on a multi-carrier system. While the handover procedure within LTE is intended to minimize interruption time to less than that of circuit-switched handovers in 2G networks, the handover procedure for LTE remains time consuming due to the number of operations involved within the steps of handover preparation, execution, and completion.